This invention relates in general to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly to a computer-based system and method for identifying an unidentified caller.
Many called parties wish to identify callers before speaking to the callers to allow the called parties to make an informed decision regarding whether to accept the calls or take other appropriate action. For example, a called party within a business or other organizational setting, home setting, or any other suitable setting might elect to accept a call, disconnect a call, or route a call to another suitable person or processing device according to the identity of the caller.
As telecommunications services continue to become more advanced to serve various needs, called parties may desire to identify callers using a variety of techniques. A known technique for identifying a caller includes receiving a telephone number associated with an incoming call and comparing the number with previously stored information to identify the caller associated with the incoming call. Such techniques are unsatisfactory if the caller is calling from a telephone, extension, or location having a telephone number different than the number that corresponds to the stored information. Other techniques may even compare a spoken word or phrase identifying the caller with a stored voice print to verify an identification made through a personal interaction with the caller or through digit or voice recognition of a personal identification number (PIN), account number, or other identifier.
Although these techniques may be acceptable to verify the identity of a caller that has already been identified, these techniques do not identify an unidentified caller out of a universe of known callers. Furthermore, techniques that require a personal interaction with the caller to generate information for comparison with stored information are often relatively inefficient and costly. Requiring the caller to provide a PIN, account number, or other number is similarly cumbersome from the perspective of the caller. Moreover, such techniques do not provide the called party with real-time control over the call prior to accepting the call or provide the called party with information to allow the called party to make an informed decision regarding whether to accept the call, transfer the call, disconnect the call, or route the call in some other manner. These and other problems make previous techniques for identifying callers inadequate for many applications.
The present invention addresses disadvantages and problems associated with previous systems and methods for identifying callers.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a computer-based system for identifying an unidentified caller includes a database containing utterance data that corresponds to a known caller. A processing system coupled to the database receives utterance information that corresponds to the unidentified caller and compares the utterance information with the utterance data to identify the unidentified caller as the known caller. In response, the processing system provides a call routing option. In a particular embodiment, the call routing option includes an accept option, a transfer option, or a disconnect option, and is provided to a called party visually using a personal computer.
The present invention provides a computer-based system and method for identifying an unidentified caller that not only verifies the identity of the unidentified caller, but also identifies the unidentified caller from a universe of known callers. The system and method of the present invention identifies the unidentified caller regardless of the location, switching system, trunk line, or telephone number associated with the caller, and may be used in a variety of computer-based contexts, including personal and business home use, business and organizational settings, and any other suitable application. The present invention improves the efficiency of the identification process by reducing personal interaction between callers and called parties or the often cumbersome task of manually or verbally providing an identifying number. Furthermore, the present invention may be self learning, such that the likelihood of identifying a particular unidentified caller may increase each time the caller interacts with the system. Moreover, the computer-based system and method of the present invention provides the called party with real-time control over the call to allow the called party to make an informed routing decision based on the identity of the identified caller. The present invention also allows the called party to pre-program routing options according to the identity of the identified caller.